Norman and Oprah

It's quite difficult to type with a puppy laying across your right arm. As much as I'm moving his little head around as I type, Norman still doesn't seem to mind.. sound asleep.

Before I brought Norman back from Texas I purchased something called the "Pup Head." It's a pad of artificial grass that sits on a tray and can be placed on a balcony, patio, etc. Perfect for high rise dwellers (like myself) who can't get a puppy who has a bladder the size of a pebble (like Norman) down 33 floors in time to avoid an accident happening in the living room. I then put the puppy training pads underneath the 'grass' between the turf and the tray and clean up is quite easy. Anyway, the little guy took to it like a pro and his 281 pee breaks a day are much easier to deal with.. especially at 11pm when it's 19 degrees outside.

Norman's urban toilette:


So the other day I took Norman with me to PetCo to buy more training pee-pads and some puppy shampoo. As I was walking out of the store, struggling to carry Norman under one arm and a huge "Value Pack" box of pee pads under the other, I noticed a man who looked oddly familiar walking towards me into the store. Suddenly it hit me.. that's Oprah's beau, Steadman, it's gotta be. He paused and looked back behind him towards the parking lot as if looking for someone who was lagging behind. As I approached my car in the parking lot I realized who was trailing behind him that he turned around to find. Oprah. With a new puppy on a leash, Oprah stood next to the hood of my car at a patch of grass attempting to coax the new puppy to pee.

I set the box of pee pads on the hood of my car so I could free up a hand to fish car keys out of my coat pocket and Oprah looked up at me (and the box) and said in her trademarked Oprah voice.. "PUPPY PEEEE PADDSS!" I replied "Oh God, let me tell you.. a life saver for someone who lives in a high rise.. hence me coming back for the 'value pack' this time!" She said "I am on my way to buy some RIGHT... NOW!" and then we had a quick conversation about puppy training and I let her know that the synthetic puppy grass was also a save-the-day product to look into. After a few minutes I said "good luck!" and got into my car. Then suddenly I said to Norman (having a pet is a great excuse to not feel/look crazy when talking to yourself) "did we just have an entire conversation with Oprah Winfrey... about peeing?!" Norman looked at me and replied with his facial expression "food." Or maybe it was "pee." I'm not sure, he only has a few thought processes I'm sure. To Norman, it was just another human being and oddly enough that's what it seemed like to me until a few moments later when I realized I had an oddly 'normal' and every-day kind of exchange with one of the most recognized and powerful women in the world. Fancy that. Fancy also that she buys her own pee pads with absolutely no security or entourage following her around. Side note: she also doesn't let a make-up artist follow her around either. I'm just sayin.

All in all, it made for an interesting lil' story to recount later. As lauren said, maybe now puppy pee pads will be on her next "favorite things" show and everyone in the audience will get a pack. It's no Pontiac Sunfire or massage chair from Brookstone, but... blame the economy (and my raving review of them) if that does indeed happen.



Norman letting me know that this photo shoot is OVER by attacking the camera strap:


This puppy has already attracted more interesting conversations out in public than I've had on my own in at least 3 months. Maybe 4.

here's to a 55 degree day in Chicago on March 5th. Norman and I are headed outside to round up some famous people and phone numbers.

M.db